When you raise light in the lamps . . . toward the face of the menorah (8:2)
It is written, “Nor does darkness obscure for You; the night shines as the day, darkness is as light” (Psalms 139:12). Yet to us He says: “When you raise light in the lamps”!
Midrash Rabbah asks: To what may the matter be compared? To the case of a king who had a friend. The king said to him: “I want you to know that I shall dine with you. Go then and make preparations for me.” His friend went and prepared a common couch, a common candelabra and a common table. When the king arrived, there came with him ministers who encompassed him on this side and that, and a golden candlestick preceded him. His friend, seeing all this pomp, felt ashamed and put away all that he had prepared for him, as it was all common. Said the king to him: “Did I not tell you that I would dine with you? Why did you not prepare anything for me?” His friend answered him: “Seeing all the pomp that accompanied you, I felt ashamed, and put away all that I had prepared for you, because they were common utensils.” “By your life!” said the king to him, “I shall set aside all the utensils that I have brought, and for love of you I shall use none but yours!” So in our case. The Holy One, blessed be He, is all light; as it says, “The light dwells with Him” (Daniel 2:22). Yet He said to Israel: “Prepare for Me a candelabra and lamps…
The Lubavitcher rebbe explains: The menorah represents the people of Israel, G‑d’s “light unto the nations.” Its many components attest to the fact that the Jewish nation is comprised of different tribes, and includes individuals from all walks of life. But even as the menorah’s form expresses the diversity within Israel, there are two laws which point to the menorah’s integrity. One law concerns the making of the menorah; the second law, the manner of its lighting. An artifact of the menorah’s complexity is usually fashioned by first molding each of its parts on its own and then welding them together. The menorah, however, was hammered out of a single piece of gold, originating as a single object and remaining a single object through the various stages of its construction, until the finished product. This represents the fact that while there are nations that are a coalition of variant groups, each formed by its own ancestry and experience but welded together by common interest and habitat, this is not the case with the Jewish people: all souls of Israel are of a single essence, and their division into distinct individuals is merely their investment into different bodies and physical lives. The second law is that although the menorah sheds its light with seven lamps, they must all be turned toward the central stem, in keeping with G‑d’s instruction to Aaron that “the seven lamps shall give light toward the face of the menorah.” This expresses the truth that although the soul of Israel shines not with a single light, but by means of a seven-lamp menorah representing the various prototypes of human character (the seven sefirot), at the same time all lamps of the menorah face the body from which they extend, emphasizing their singular origin and their singular goal. In other words: we all come from the same place, and we are all oriented toward the same goal. The differences are only in order to better express our Source and to more completely achieve our goal. Which makes them not differences, but the ultimate expression of oneness.
And this was the work of the menorah . . . from its shaft to its flowers (8:4) Divrei Noam explains that the menorah also represents the Torah, the source of Divine light in the world. This is alluded to in the menorah’s design, which is detailed in the 25th chapter of Exodus. The menorah had 7 branches, 11 knobs, 9 flowers and 22 goblets, and was 17 handbreadths in height. These numbers represent the five books of the Written Torah: the first verse in the book of Genesis has 7 words, the first verse of Exodus has 11 words, the first verse of Leviticus has 9 words, the first verse of Numbers has 17 words, and the first verse of Deuteronomy—22 words.
Prepared by Devorah Abenhaim
